Seattle Presses Pause on Its Mass Surveillance Plans

By Mike Riggs

November 18, 2013

The Seattle Police Department did something amazing this week: After word got out that the department had created a citywide surveillance network without input from community members or a policy to govern the system's use, the police department agreed to deactivate the whole thing.

Capable of geo-locating smart phone and computer users across the city, Seattle acquired its "mesh network" the same way other cities got theirs: the Department of Homeland Security helped pay for it, a private contractor built it, and the city council approved it without public debate. Then The Strangerran a lengthy exposé in which a member of the Seattle PD responded to a question about rules governing the use of the mesh network by saying, "[We're] not comfortable answering policy questions when we do not yet have a policy." (The Strangeralso published a list of questions the Seattle PD refused to answer.) Roughly a week later, Seattle PD Sgt. Sean Whitcomb told the alternative weekly, "The wireless mesh network will be deactivated until city council approves a draft policy and until there's an opportunity for vigorous public debate."

That's a big victory for privacy advocates who worry about the potential for abuse with these kinds of massive surveillance systems. Plenty of cities have already demonstrated that they don't see "vigorous public debate" as a requisite for implementing such systems.